“It’s more important to be intelligent and kind than it is to be beautiful, Réland.” Those were words I heard often as a little girl most likely to keep me level-headed… but it took a more profound shaping on my life. As a young student, I was offered to skip grades. I moved around a lot of the time and became strong at building relationships quickly. In the seventh grade, my teachers all got together to write all of us students a kind note and mine read “You are as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside.” That note helped solidify the momentum of focusing on always lending a helping hand and doing well in my studies.

Now as I was growing up with that message my dad was a prosecutor and in the Marine Corps. He made it a point to introduce me and my younger sisters to women who held ceiling-breaking roles such as judges, CEOs, CMOs, and business owners. We were never told we couldn’t do this because we are women… instead, we were told that we were capable of anything and that being a woman was in our favor. Both our mom and step-mom were kind incredible women who held exceptional roles in their careers, but made it a point to ensure we volunteered and always reached a kind hand to those around us.

Fast forward in life and in my business, I have earned countless awards, been on stage, and appeared on Podcasts. None of this was because I went after them or put myself out there. It was because I wanted to help someone who needed their podcast up and running, they needed a speaker for their first conference, someone who needed a helping hand. My parents showed me success and kindness go hand in hand and there is nothing in this world that isn’t attainable if I work hard.

Reland Logan is an award-winning brand coach, the founder of Gray Digital Marketing, and the creator of Brand Brunches a mimosa-fueled marketing masterclass offering female business owners education on building a strong brand for better business. Ultimately Reland helps brands go from ordinary to extraordinary to build a more profitable business.

She has been recognized globally for her Outstanding leadership in Marketing by the Marketing 2.0 conference, as a Top 50 Marketer on the Rise from the African American Marketing Association, co-authored the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion National Pledge for the American Marketing Association and is past president of her local chapter. Reland is a certified business coach and has her Master Storyteller Designation.

Réland has been a guest on the following podcasts Business Over Beers, The Other Side of Sales, Let’s Talk Marketing with Nathan Webster, It’s Going Down with Marc & Cathey and SalesFuel among others. She has also spoken at several conferences such as the “Let’s Connect Conference”, “Start Your Solution Summit” and now the Black CEO Conference.

Though all of this is incredible, Réland started her business when she had nowhere to turn. She was fired 1 week before her 30th birthday because of COVID. As a single mother sitting on hold for unemployment every day was not an option. Watching her son reenact Disney Cars, listening to the hold music for unemployment, and scrolling through Instagram it dawned on her that she could start a Social Media agency because she had marketing and sales experience. With no more than $200 in her bank account, Réland started Gray Digital Marketing to help businesses take the time-suck out of social media and turn it into a scroll-stopping money maker. And…. it didn’t really work out.

What she realized was businesses had a deeper problem as to why social media wasn’t converting to sales. It had to do with the fact that they didn’t have an established brand that helped anchor who they were why they did what they did, and who they did it for! In year 3 of business, Réland re-branded to a Branding agency and made the move to take brands from ordinary to extraordinary by adding a little EXTRA!

I stared at the wall for an indescribable amount of time. I had just lost my job 1 week before my 30th birthday… I was going into a new decade of failure. How was I going to pay my rent? Feed my kid? Keep my car?

I was spiraling.

So I went numb.

2020 was supposed to be the best year ever… and it was in hindsight, but it didn’t feel that way at the moment.

10 days after my birthday I started my company and like many, it wasn’t easy, but shortly after I started my company toward the end of April the world faced another tragedy in the death of George Floyd. Which catapulted me into a space of being an expert on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Marketing. I didn’t want to be an expert, but I stepped up because someone needed to. So I joined a grassroots movement in the American Marketing Association and co-authored the DEI pledge. I developed DEI fatigue before it was a term used widely today.

I went on to take a job as the head of sales & marketing of a staffing agency that focused on DEI consulting. Though my role was Sales & Marketing the company was small and I had to consult often in the space. The city I live in is predominantly white and it was difficult for me to face daily microaggressions that began to take a toll on my mental health.

I went to Cabo for my best friend’s bachelorette party and that was the start of my anxiety attacks. I would disappear from the breakfast table to cry in the bathroom because I was too overwhelmed. Me. A person who is known for her smiles and laughter was finally breaking. I came back from the trip and quit my job to get my mental health back. I even stopped working in my business for 6 months. In that time I realized that quitting Gray Digital was not an option, but I didn’t have to do work that broke my heart and hurt me mentally. Those around me and those I served deserved to be around someone who brought light to any situation. I made the choice to choose happiness and decided that having fun in business was the way to do it.

Just because you look a certain way… or the world wants to force you to go in a certain direction… You don’t have to. You have the right to choose and live the way that allows you to fill your cup. When you are healthy and happy you can change the world and help others fill their cup. Once I made that decision my business and connections began to flourish.

H.O.P.E Help one person every day! Developing that mindset within the team and leading by example allowed my teams to naturally begin to care for each other instead of just caring for a paycheck. If someone wanted to move on to a new role we would support them and cheer them on. If someone was falling behind we would come together as a team to help out. As a team, we kept things casual and would find creative outlets for work such as over lunch, on a walk, or on a picnic. That team went to lead the company to a 119% increase in new business that year and was known by the company as the dream team.

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